Researchers at York University in Toronto are carrying out the first study of a play-based therapy program that has had some remarkable success in drawing some autistic children out of their solitary worlds and into a shared one. In this video, the CBC's Ioanna Roumeliotis offers a moving look inside floortime therapy... and how it's given one Ontario family new hope for their son.

Childhood is changing and we'd better start to address it soon. Ongoing research on kids' psychological development suggests that kids who are excessively withdrawn, or hyper-reactive, or act out too much are often sending a signal that their stress levels are too high. There is also a growing amount of research suggesting that kids have much higher levels of physiological stress than they did a generation ago and the adults in their lives need to start recognizing when children's problematic behaviours are due to these high stress levels.

Using punishment and reward for kids who are overly disruptive and easily distracted doesn’t work very well. In some cases, it even exacerbates the problem. Instead of trying to force children to behave according to the rules, we need to recognize these behaviours for what they are — signs of an over-stretched nervous system. This is critical because problems with self-regulation are a predictor of internalizing problems, anti-social behaviour and susceptibility to drug use later in life. Studies have also tied poor self-regulation to a wide range of issues, including obesity, risky behaviour and attentional problems. The better kids self-regulate, the better they can control impulses or delay gratification, and focus on learning.

For the last two years, the Western Australian Commissioner for Children and Young People, Michelle Scott, has played host to a Thinker in Residence. This year the 2012 Thinker in Residence is one of Canada’s absolute leaders in child development. He specialises in self-regulation. Dr Stuart Shanker is the director of the Milton and Ethel Harris Research Initiative (MEHRI), focused on cognitive and social neuroscience and based at York University in Toronto, where he’s also Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy and Psychology. We talk to Dr Shanker and Commissioner Michelle Scott.

York University philosopher Stuart Shanker is one of the world's leading thinkers on "kids with disorders." The author of twenty books on philosophy and human development, he incorporates the latest knowledge we have about the brain to improve the lives of struggling children. He talks with IDEAS producer Mary O'Connell.

The best teachers are nurturers who make intentional use of play and experience-based learning by using a combination of child-initiated and teacher-selected activities. That's no simple feat, which is exactly why teachers must have a sound understanding of the stages of a child's development and be able to detect potential challenges. Many parents question why their child who began Grade 1 advanced and excited is struggling by Grade 4. Recent research has opened our eyes to the large number of children with easily overlooked biological problems.... The earlier problems are identified, the greater the chances of mitigating and perhaps even preventing the sorts of social, psychological and learning challenges that are becoming ever more apparent in later grades.

Is your child developing normally? Every kid is different, of course, but research shows that there are things you could and should be doing to appropriately stimulate and engage your toddler. There is increasing evidence that experience-based brain development in the early years of life sets neurological and biological pathways that affect lifelong health, learning and behaviour. To help you understand and enhance your child's early development, Dr. Stuart Shanker, president of the Council of Early Child Development, was online earlier to take your questions. Your questions and Dr. Shanker's answers appear at the bottom of this page.

Self-regulation has three steps: The first is to figure out what the stressors are and reduce them; the second is to develop self awareness of one's physical and emotional state; and the third is to learn what to do to bring yourself back to an appropriate state of arousal. In classrooms, it can mean anything from the strategies mentioned above to soundproofing an area of the classroom for quiet reading, to allowing kids to go to the gym to do chinups for a break during seat work. "This really is a story about all children, and not just children who are having difficulty," Shanker said.

It's being described as a watershed moment in B.C. education. Six school districts have embarked on a project that views self-regulation as the key to addressing the mental, physical and psychological diversity in classrooms that sometimes disrupts learning and creates a stressful environment for teachers. Leaders in those districts have embraced the philosophy of York University professor Stuart Shanker, that teaching children to self-regulate - in other words, remain calm, focused and alert - is the best way to help them learn. It's a theory backed by education ministry officials. Surrey superintendent Mike McKay, who is leading the B.C. project, says the goal is to apply brain research in designated classrooms while working with Shanker's research team. The districts - Surrey, West Vancouver, Coquitlam, Victoria, Bulkley Valley and Nanaimo-Ladysmith - are simply the "first wave" of an effort McKay hopes will spread provincewide. Former education minister George Abbott echoed that view and predicted during an interview last month before he left the ministry that the project now underway will bring significant change to all 60 districts within two to four years. "This is hugely exciting," he said. "I think it can reshape the way we manage the challenge of special needs in the 21st century."

Dr Shanker, who recently spoke at a conference in Belfast, emphasised the need to establish an appropriate state of calmness and receptiveness for best learning. He stresses the importance of not over stimulating small growing brains with, for example, exciting video games; of creating an oasis of calm with muted, not always primary colours; of removing clutter and extraneous noise so that concentration can be focussed on learning and energy not sapped on distractions. All these experts reaffirm the need for constant and steady loving care and attention in a young child's life in order to create a well adjusted human being. Who better than grandparents with a bit of time to engage, to observe and to communicate to help in this rewarding challenge. What a gift it would be to a baby or toddler whose parents are too stressed, or too busy, if older volunteer people, maybe with no opportunity to be grandparents themselves, could help in this crucial child development.

When Stuart Shanker looks around Roebourne, he sees a town full of people whose talents could be harnessed to help young people. The Canadian expert in child development and self-regulation, who has worked with his own indigenous communities, said a Canadian system to create a culture of valuing education using local people could be successful in WA. “We have to draw on the community’s own strengths,” he said.

It's never too late to help a child, teen or young adult learn to better self-regulate their emotions, behaviours and impulses, says child development specialist Stuart Shanker. The required skills can be taught at any age. "It just takes a bit more effort as they get older," he says. Research shows that children who are able to self-regulate have better long-term outcomes across a range of areas including learning, relationships, physical and mental health.

Self-regulation describes our ability to manage our own energy states, emotions, behaviours and attention in ways that are positive and socially acceptable. Children who struggle with self-regulation have trouble monitoring their emotions, dealing with frustration, delay or distractions, shifting attention between tasks and controlling their impulses. In order to manage these things, Dr Shanker says, children need to be calm and focused. “The problem we’re seeing with children today is so many of them don’t know what it feels like to be calm,” he told a gathering of parents at St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School in Karrinyup last week. “We’re seeing a dramatic increase in the number of kids that have poor self control.”

As families, parents and carers we exert a powerful influence. Children’s brain development — their social, emotional and cognitive development — is shaped by their experiences with us. We lay the foundation for future learning, behaviour and physical and mental health. Recognising the importance of providing young children with experiences that provide the best possible start to life, Commissioner for Children and Young People Michelle Scott has appointed Stuart Shanker, one of Canada’s foremost child development specialists, as the 2012 Thinker in Residence. Dr Shanker will talk to parents, educators, health, mental health and disability professionals about the importance of the development of self-regulation.

Dr Shanker has been appointed a Thinker in Residence by WA Commissioner for Children and Young People Michelle Scott and is a world expert in child development and self-regulation, or the ability to monitor and modify emotions, focus or shift attention and control impulses. He presented a workshop at Roseworth Primary School, Girrawheen, on Tuesday for Edith Cowan University trainee early childhood teachers, telling them children with high levels of stress did not have enough energy to pay attention and learn. Ms Scott said she appointed Dr Shanker after submissions to a mental health inquiry last year reported increased levels of anxiety in children. She said that in a 2009 study more than a third of WA children between the ages of 5 and 18 reported being too stressed and 40 per cent would not talk about that stress.

Parents, early childhood practitioners, teachers and a wide range of health and mental health practitioners are looking for strategies to improve the poor self-regulation of children and young people at home and in school. I am pleased that one of Canada’s foremost child development specialists, Dr Stuart Shanker, has accepted my invitation to be the 2012 Thinker in Residence and share his knowledge and research on self-regulation. Children with good self-regulation skills do better in school, develop positive relationships, are inquisitive and motivated and cope well with stress. In the long term, positive self-regulation is shown to reduce the incidence of obesity, cardiovascular disease and acting out risky behaviours. The 2012 Thinker program will run from June 5 to 15 and will include a particular focus on strategies that can be used to develop and enhance self-regulation, in the early years and later childhood and teenage years.

Research has shown self-regulation "is far more important than IQ in not just what kind of grades a kid gets, but how often the kid goes to class, how much time the kid spends on homework, how vulnerable the kids is to things like risky sexual behaviour, or aggression, or taking drugs, and even things as simple as how much time they spend watching TV or playing video games," Stuart Shanker, a child development expert at York University, told a conference held by People for Education last fall. Longitudinal studies that have followed children from the 1960s into their adulthoods are producing convincing evidence that this stuff matters.

"The word 'play' has this aspect of frivolity around it," says Stuart Shanker, a child development expert at York University. "There's still a tendency for parents to think that it's 'just' play. It's not."

If you want to help a child with satisfactory grades bump them up to excellent ones, think beyond the actual work he or she is completing in class, suggests Stuart Shanker, a professor of philosophy and psychology at York University in Toronto who studies brain development.... “The worst thing we can do with those kids is bore them,” he says.

Prof Stuart Shanker of York University in Canada, who was in Dublin earlier this month to launch a new childcare initiative in Ballymun, said there was no substitute for interaction between parent and child. His central message was that parents do not need to do anything out of the ordinary, or buy any kind of "educational" DVD to further their child’s development.... "Neuroscience proves that playing, touching, paying attention or talking at a level that comforts the baby, for example, are the building blocks for healthy infant brain development," he explains. "These brain-to-brain experiences are vital for sensory and motor development as well as helping the child to self-regulate later on so that he can control and understand temper, emotions, stress or attention span."

Dr Stuart Shanker, research professor of philosophy and psychology at the University of York, Canada, said some children who seemed "mentally well" could be said to be not mentally healthy. "It is often difficult to identify why a child who does not have a diagnosable disorder is nonetheless having trouble in a certain environment, such as school. It can take a couple of months to understand what is involved in such cases," he said.

Alanna Mitchell is wrong in saying there is a "feud" between educators and brain researchers. For example, two years ago TDSB hosted a series of speeches by York University's Stuart Shanker (whom Mitchell lists as one of seven major players in international brain research). And over the past few years, Shanker and his colleague Jim Stieben have given several presentations to enthralled trustees and directors of education at Ontario Public School Board Association conferences. Many trustees told me that these were the most important and informative lectures they have ever attended. Translating emerging research into effective teaching practices takes time and care, but our schools are paying attention.

Neuroscience tells us that the goal of teaching is make sure children's brains are calm and interested enough to build strong pathways among their nerve cells, and then reinforce those paths. It's those connections that contain retrievable information and knowledge. That means a teacher's job is to show students how to develop a healthy brain, says Stuart Shanker, professor of psychology and philosophy at York University in Toronto. This comes down to teaching children about executive function - the "Marshmallow Test" - so they can give their brains a chance to build these pathways, he says.

Stuart Shanker, research professor of psychology and philosophy at York University in Toronto, says that brain surgeons have concluded that every adult brain is so different that even basic landmarks can be hard to find. "The idea that there are brain topographies turns out to be nonsense," he says. What does this great equalizing brain mean for education? For one thing, it implies that the first several years of life, when the synaptic connections are being made fast and furiously, are critically important to the child's future intelligence. That's why there has been such a policy focus across the world on making sure young children are not deprived. That doesn't mean loading them up with Baby Einstein videos or playing them Bach around the clock. It just means connecting with them, talking, reading, feeding and teaching in a natural, loving way. In other words, helping them learn from the more advanced brain of the older person who is taking care of them.

"By being regulated, a baby acquires the ability to regulate," Shanker says. Sometimes, though, that process is interrupted - by stress, hunger, environment or the caregiver's inadequate responses. And that creates problems for the child at school, for the schools and, ultimately, for society. Shanker says perhaps as many as half of North American children have poor self-regulation by the time they get to school, citing a study of nearly 3,600 teachers in the U.S. in 2000. It manifests in high rates of attention-deficit disorder or hyperactivity, among many other problems. He and others trace some of this to the increase in neurotoxins - such as mercury, air pollution and now-banned PCBs - passing through the umbilical cords, making some children hypersensitive (and others not sensitive enough) to touch, sound or sight. That, in turn, interferes with the child's ability to learn self-regulation from a caregiver. Their nerves jangle (or remain numb) at the slightest stimulation. In sheer self-protection, the supersensitive shut down that sense.

Shanker, 56, is a restless psychologist and philosopher who set up the Milton and Ethel Harris Research Initiative, a cognitive and social neuroscience institute at York University, with a $5 million grant from the Harris Steel Foundation. He works with Fraser Mustard, Canada's early-child development guru, and Stanley Greenspan, the American child psychiatrist who set up the Zero To Three Foundation to support child development. Shanker is an expert in autism and has developed new, drug-free therapies to treat autistic children. He was educated at Oxford University.

What if, for the first time, teachers were to use radical new findings about how the brain actually learns? Would teaching look different? Could every child, regardless of family wealth, race, sex or country reach his or her full potential? Could it transform society? Yes, says Stuart Shanker, research professor of psychology and philosophy at York University. The roadblock: The education system would have to change from top to bottom. Not necessarily in overall cost, but certainly in attitude, training and research.

Today, many parents and teachers believe that the best defence against an uncertain future is to teach children to learn how to learn. To them, that is the goal of education. They believe the education system should unearth and ignite their children's passion, their intrinsic desire to learn, the deep joy of discovery. It is a vision completely at odds with the goals of much of the modern education system. And neuroscientific findings are telling us that the brain learns - or forms strong neural connections - when the child is in a calm, emotionally regulated state. "That's telling us that education must be holistic," says Stuart Shanker, research professor of psychology and philosophy at York University in Toronto and a leading figure in neuroeducation. "The first question is: Have we created an educational workforce that has the tools to perform this holistic function? And of course the answer is: No, we haven't."

Talking at the World Forum on Early Care and Education in Belfast last week (June 16-19), Stuart Shanker, Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at York University, Ontario, Canada, said, 'About half of all our kids arrive in school, Grade 1, with serious challenges in self-regulation - 27 per cent have very serious issues and another 25 per cent are muddling through.' The problem, he said, stems from 'an explosion of babies whose hypersensitivities are so overpowering that the children have to shut down to protect themselves.' He said such a response prevents a baby from sustaining the brain-building interactions between mother and child that are essential to learning how to self-regulate.... 'Self-regulation is key for success both physically and mentally,' said Professor Shanker. 'But it is never too late to get a child on a healthy trajectory.'

Studies have shown that early learning and behaviour problems can lead to poor school performance, social maladjustment, criminal behaviour, substance abuse and health problems later on. "Even the amount of stress a baby is exposed to ... can determine not just how well they do in school, but if they're happy or have solid social relationships and also their physical health, mental health and their risk of depression, autoimmune disorders, cancer, whatever," said Shanker, an expert in developmental neuroscience and now president of the early childhood council. "We are now beginning to appreciate the social enormity of these problems, plus the cost to society," said Shanker. "It's very expensive to do intervention on a school-age child and at best you'll only succeed about half the time."

When he talks about the brave new world of research into early childhood brain development, Stuart Shanker gets, pardon the pun, as excited as a kid. "This is one of the most exciting times to be in this field of work," says Shanker, who was recently appointed director of York University's Milton and Ethel Harris Initiative, which specializes in the study of early childhood development. "Some of the biggest breakthroughs in our understanding and knowledge of the developing brain have occurred in just the past six or seven years."

...in "The First Idea," Stanley Greenspan and Stuart Shanker contend that "emotional intelligence," as it is coming to be understood, is only one of the "roots and branches" of intelligence itself. "The trunk," they argue, is a set of abilities they refer to as the "functional-emotional developmental capacities." The critical concept in "The First Idea" is what the authors call "co-regulated emotional signaling." By this they mean the affectionate back-and-forth between baby and caregiver. Mom and Baby make eye contact, and when Mom smiles at Baby, Baby smiles back.... Later on, children progress to "shared social problem solving," by which the authors mean such things as a toddler gesturing toward the cookie jar and getting her father to understand what she wants. Even before language, there is a vocabulary of gesture and vocalization, and a skill of reading facial expression, gestures, and body language of other people, of falling into their rhythms, that very young children develop.

Within days of that first meeting with Kanzi at the Georgia State Language Research Centre six years ago, Shanker became part of an American research team that's attracting world-wide attention for its study of bonobo apes. The team's controversial research is turning conventional language theory on its head. "It looks like Kanzi went through a similar neurological development (as a child), simply being raised in a language-rich environment, where language is used to mediate social interaction," he says. The ape's incredible progress has urged the researchers to take their findings a step further. Shanker is teaming up with Stanley Greenspan, a developmental psychiatrist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to apply the same language principles to teach mentally impaired and autistic children to communicate. Autistic kids are often intelligent children who simply can't express themselves with language.

"The linguists kept upping their demands and Sue kept meeting the demands," said Dr. Shanker. "But the linguists keep moving the goal post." Following Dr. Chomsky, most linguists argue that special neural circuitry needed for language evolved after man's ancestors split from those of the chimps millions of years ago. As evidence they note how quickly children, unlike chimpanzees, go from cobbling together two-word utterances to effortlessly spinning out complex sentences with phrases embedded within phrases like Russian dolls. But Dr. Shanker and his colleagues insist that Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh's experiments suggest that there is not an unbridgeable divide between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom, as orthodox linguists believe, but rather a gradation of linguistic skills.